I guess that it just seems that (having watched) BH&G everything seems swish. Spag bol was special when I was a kid, a real treat. I tried to make what my mum called chow mein the other day, and it's nowhere near as nice or tasty as hers, she doesn't have a recipe and the only ingredient i know other than the mince & cabbage is curry powder. Magazines are full of menu plans and everything taking ages to prepare, but little time to cook. (and it's a "quick meal" - only needs 20 mins of veggie chopping prior!)

I wonder how much is being lost from our kids' future? I do roast lamb/beef every week cause it's dead easy, yet to my husband it's a special high-effort meal. Mum would make what she called "racehorses" which I think are a kind of fritter ...

I want to get to a point where I can grow stuff in the veggie patch, and not stress cause it doesn't fit a recipe, yet still have a filling meal. I'd love to be true "fork to fork" in my efforts. I feel our meals are so "named" and "recipe led" that the simple skill of knowing what goes together is lost - chicken tonight isn't a treat any more, but a staple. (sorry, I'm not trying to offend anyone, just trying to get my thoughts in order)

And it's not just in the kitchen I think these skills are being lost - I had a housemate once who didn't know the basics of fixing a door latch, of household repairs like a hole in plaster. I taught him all these things. We're moving to a society where everyone has a role, and the jack-of-all-trades is being lost.

Mind you, I wish I knew how to throw stuff in the slow cooker and for it to work!

Once you've cooked enough you don't need a recipe, you know what goes in certain dishes. I can make a lot of things just by the eye. And I think that's important. If you cook something with multiple ingredients it's a recipe. Whether you're counting the tablespoons or not it's still a dish and it's Kazbah's recipe

I won't lie I love recipe books, but these to me are like small courses. Unless I'm baking I very rarely follow a recipe, but they give me great ideas I can work on. Unless I'm making a classic dish iykwim?

I like to go round the shops, look at the luxury meals, then figure out how to bake them myself! It's fun.

I agree we are living in a lazy age. Sis' fiance wanted to call in the decorators... to paint the downstairs loo! She had to teach him how to paint. Everything is "convenient", from decorating to food to basic car maintainance. Pay someone to do it rather than use your own hands. I hate it - but then I cook from scratch 95% of the time, we grow our own veg and DH can not only decorate but do the plumbing etc too.

My mother cooked "ifit" - "if it goes round you'll get a bit". Oh, how I longed for the day I wouldn't get a bit! I hate mince meals.

I tend to follow recipes - but every time I cook I change the recipe a bit depending on what we have in and what I actually fancy eating.

LOL savory mince and mashed potatoes If you'd had baked it with potato and cheese on top, I'd say its a shepards pie!

I did that the other night for the kids and I and then used the leftovers and made shepherds pie for DH's dinner.

I completely understand what you mean Kazbah and Rouge, I love recipe books too but like you Rouge, I only follow a recipe for baking but everything else I bastardise to suit our tastes LOL. I guess I prepare lots of meals that techincally have names, but I don't sit everyone down for dinner and say tonight we are having xyz. We rarely buy food specific for a meal all the time, it's only if we want to try something new kwim?

FWIW my family never expect be told what their food is, they just eat it.

:yeahthat: as long as it is food my DH will eat it, no name required. Although the other night I made noodles (with egg, lemon, fish sauce etc) but put egg noodles rather than crunchy ones and it kind of turned into mush, DH did ask what that was called, when I said 'noodles' he looked closer and asked where the noodles were, he still had seconds so it obviously didn't affect the taste.

My mum used to call these meals **** on a stick....hmmm, not too appetising! LOL!

I made a mince meal very similar to what you did the other day Kaz, but with noodles and noone was terribly impressed ('cept me!). I wasn't happy. I literally threw out the whole lot except half of what DH had, my whole meal, and one bite each from the kids. The plain noodles were a hit though! Sometimes my 'whatever' meals aren't very well recieved, lol! But I persist, hehe... alot of our meal are just meat and veg, nothing special. Mostly the only time I make a 'special' meal is if it's a bake (as you said, easy as!) or a slow cooker meal (again, easy as to just throw everything in!). Though I often make 'whatever' meals in the SC too, and they usually turn out sooo yum! But you do need to learn what goes with what when you do meals like that too. Sometimes what I put with what isn't terribly nice, but hey, you gotta learn somehow!

BTW, mum makes chow mein too, but I think it was called something else in our house...can't remember what though- mince, cabbage, french style sliced beans, curry powder, and a packet or two of chicken noodle soup, a bit of woustershire sauce (sp?) and water, yummo.....I might have to make some of that one day!

My kids will ask what we are eating and if it has a name, I'll tell them. Spag bol, shepherds pie, frittata, stir fry.... it doesn't mean I make it the same everytime, but I think for them to recognise tastes and what they are generally known as is a good thing.

I do a savoury mince and put in with mash all the time, I put the potato as a circle flat on a plate and the mince is hair, carrots are the eyes and nose and tomato sauce smile and my kids call it happy face dinner. I don't use a recipe and its a standard for getting rid of vegetables hiding in the mince with some stock.... same way I make shepherds pie.

If my kids ask what is in it, I tell them what I threw in. I rarely use recipes, just look in the cupboard for what we have and try to get my flavours right. I taste as I go too and make sure its okay.... or I use DH as my taster if I'm scared